Cabot Corp plans to close its carbon black manufacturing facility in Waverly, WV, in March 2008. Customer shipments from the facility will continue through the middle of 2008. The decision to close the facility was driven by changes in the tire manufacturing industry.

Over the past 18 months, tire manufacturing has seen a significant restructuring, with multiple tire-capacity reductions in North America and the expansion of tire manufacturing facilities in China and other countries in the Asia Pacific and South America regions. Cabot is in the process of debottlenecking several of its carbon black manufacturing facilities in North America to continue to fully meet customer requirements.

Cabot had announced the plant’s closure in June and said 48 employees would be affected.